This is a rerecording of the song I posted a month ago here, Through the Darkest Night. I changed guitar and drum tones (finally remembered the settings for a deliciously crunchy tone), and made minor changes to guitar, bass and drum lines. I learned quite a bit recording this: layering many tracks with the same guitar parts really improves the overall tone, mixing is... quite hard, at least if you want a decent sound, and DAWs can be evil as fuck when they want to.I've also recorded a new song, Days Gone. It's another power metal-ish song, though it is faster and shorter, and quite upbeat. No vocals included though Still very much a work in progress.

I know metal drums are supposed to be clicky, but it sounds like you high-passed the entire kit at like 200 Hz on both these songs. I would personally mix them differently. Sounds a bit "black metal" to me - muddy and thick dripping tone on the guitar, which is pushed out front, and a everything is bit "fuzzy", and you can hear the noise of some angry electronics hissing throughout.

The Great Hippo wrote:[T]he way we treat suspected terrorists genuinely terrifies me.

So if I state that the stuff I make isn't intended for, nor expected to be for, commercial purposes and I gain, nor expect to gain, no profit from them, they're for promotional use only and that I won't hesitate to take them down upon receipt of a DMCA take-down request and PM Talon asking if they're allowed.. would that be ok?

Also, interesting read. I had read about the four points of fair use before, but not that particular article. I'd think the 4th is most applicable and if anything would create a positive effect.

Thanks for PMing me! (Att:Other readers - this isn't sarcasm, hifi PM'd me, I spent about an hour looking into it, and sent hifi a message back, so here's the general idea of what I said so everyone else can be on the same level and know where I'm coming from)

As I said in the PM, provided it's not for a commercial use, nor for promotional means for the purpose of selling a mashup album you made, then go right ahead.

If it is for the purposes of promoting an otherwise legal mashup album, then.. oh man, I'll need more time and to know more about what you're doing because the legality of it is going to vary based on what else is going on.(aka - a mix of music you don't own released freely to show off your skills while you're selling something that's all original (or at least properly licensed)? That's A-OK. A mix of music you don't own released to show off your skills while you're selling or otherwise providing an album of material composed in part or totally of music that you do not have licensed? ... I'll need time, but if it's for sale I'm pretty sure that's illegal. If you're just providing it... man, I have no idea right now. I know Danger Mouse did it, but that doesn't mean it was legal)

Having read your message and post here, I think I've got it (thanks for the answer, by the way) and I would like to say that I do not sell anything (see the statement above or in the PM), this is just purely showing off my talents (though in a less attention-whoring way. More of a 'I'm proud of what I did and would appreciate it if others could hear it and comment on it' - pretty much the same as everyone else here). Also, bear in mind, they're not hosted on a cyber-locker nor my own website, they're on SoundCloud so they're subject to their T&C's.

I feel I've opened a can of worms here, so I'm just going to post them and if you feel they breach the rules, swing your mighty banhammer. But yes, this isn't for commercial reasons, I am not selling them, just showing off.

So yes, the mashups:Rammstein vs Nine Inch Nails vs Muse - http://snd.sc/oQoiqq (finished just the other day)The Bloody Beetroots vs Pendulum - http://snd.sc/rah6yn (this was made for and featured on 2011 Halloween mashup CD, featuring remixes, mashups and original music for all your Halloween party needs. Check out the site (and download the album for free) here - http://www.monstermashups.co.uk/Example vs REM - http://snd.sc/o9G7gg (really quite popular, featured on Mega Dance Party #11, Mash Up Your Bootz #49, played/sung live at Bootie SF...)Breakbot vs Jamiroquai - http://snd.sc/pEPQl0 (nice and simple, but I like it)

These are just a selection. I've done more, deleted them from the 'tubes as necessary, but these are just a few of the ones left online.. For those in Toronto, I made the Anti-Hit list in the Star once (not with one of these tracks, though). So yeah, check 'em out, it's all free to listen and download if you want (but you like them, I'd give money to the artists involved, not me. I do).

You've all heard 'em before in various iterations (see: my other posts in this thread), but this is way better, I promise. Lot more effects, actual multitrack recording, a ton of hours of work... they're real songs, not just demos.

one of my best friends plays guitar, the other plays drums, I play the bass & did the engineering/mixing/producing stuff--something I like doing a lot. heck, I'd do it for you guys.

You've all heard 'em before in various iterations (see: my other posts in this thread), but this is way better, I promise. Lot more effects, actual multitrack recording, a ton of hours of work... they're real songs, not just demos.

one of my best friends plays guitar, the other plays drums, I play the bass & did the engineering/mixing/producing stuff--something I like doing a lot. heck, I'd do it for you guys.

Bass & Production: Dylan K. Allard

Explains why the bass is mixed so loud.

Pretty good mixing otherwise. Is Just Enough Sound intentionally not mastered to modern levels? It seems significantly quieter than Ghosts.

The Great Hippo wrote:[T]he way we treat suspected terrorists genuinely terrifies me.

Ever since I graduated high school, I've been trying to make music. At first, I was poking just around on a keyboard and trying to learn to play the guitar. I got a little better, and started writing instrumental songs. Just piano and bass with some strings. I did that for a couple of years. Then, I started recording guitar tracks. In 2008, I swallowed my fears and started to sing. Three albums later, well, here we are.

I don't really have much gear - just a single electric guitar, an acoustic, my amp, some pedals, and my computer. I do all my own recording, mixing, and production. Last night, I ordered my first (small) round of discs, and signed off on the digital distribution agreement for iTunes and whatnot. I'm still learning, but I'm quite proud of how far I've come. I would be thrilled if you took the time to listen.

Standout tracks, according to those who have listened before (and me, of course) are:

I wish the kick was more there. Was this a real kick recorded? I would have liked either a sub-kick mic, a better placement of the existing kick mic, or some sample replacement/layering. It really doesn't have enough "oomph" imho. A dynamic mic inside the head a foot or so off the beater is a good starting point, and then you can make your own sub-kick mic if you can solder and have an old speaker. Or you could just add in the sub lows with a gate and a 55 Hz (or so) sine tone that opens with the kick mic.

You've all heard 'em before in various iterations (see: my other posts in this thread), but this is way better, I promise. Lot more effects, actual multitrack recording, a ton of hours of work... they're real songs, not just demos.

one of my best friends plays guitar, the other plays drums, I play the bass & did the engineering/mixing/producing stuff--something I like doing a lot. heck, I'd do it for you guys.

I prefer Ghosts. If it was me, I'd have boosted the vocals or made them stand out some more, but that's more of a personal thing. I like the reverb on the guitar halfway through and overall, a nice beat. Ooh, nice bit at 2.10.. (yeah, I'm listening and typing..) Nice continuation.. I can tell the effort gone into it and I think the multitrack recording method improves it significantly. I usually judge songs based on whether I wouldn't mind paying for them (online or physically) and this gets a 'yes' from me.

I listened to both. Since I'm unfamiliar with the original songs, I have no idea what was mashed with what, but it was a very pleasant pop mix with nothing sticking out as incongruous. I enjoyed it the whole way through, even though I'm not all that into pop.

The second one was okay, but it got a bit repetitive IMHO. I'm not usually a fan of the 4 on the floor electronic music, so that may be why. I like Infected Mushroom, so I'm not against the genre. I see you have it marked as "no rights reserved", and there's some pretty cool bits in it. I might steal something from it.

The Great Hippo wrote:[T]he way we treat suspected terrorists genuinely terrifies me.

Coldplay - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall? Their newest song that's infecting the charts? Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars? That insanely popular song a few years ago? Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me?

None of this rings a bell? Wow.. But anyway, thanks for the feedback. It's always good to have someone unfamiliar to the songs comment on them - since I am and I spend so much time listening to the mix, I tend to ignore/forgive any incongruencies. Extra pair of ears are always welcome.

As for second, yeah I know what you mean about the repetitiveness. I was thinking that as I was doing it - 'for people who don't like this kind of song/haven't heard the orginals, this could be seen as too long'. Did contemplate cutting out the middle section (from 2.51 to 3.51) but have that second build up but you know, I got a bit carried away.. As for the No Rights Reserved on it, I've nothing against that (and I can't stop you, it's not technically my stuff, after all. Just someone elses that I've fiddled around with), KLV won't, but Mike Oldfield might (Tubular Bells guy? Did the theme tune to The Exorcist?).. As such, I don't think KLV'll mind if I send you stuff from his track, but I'll ask him first.

Nice effects and samples.. could easily be in a video game.. Oh wait. Admittedly, metal is not my bag, baby, but this sounds good. Female singer sounds a tad off-key in places, though. Truth be told, if I heard this somewhere else, I could easily think it was a professional band. Extremely well mastered.. good job

Voyage Of Fantasy - for some reason, I want to hear this at half-tempo. Good stuff though - simple but effective. Again, this type of folk isn't a favourite of mine, but yeah, I like this. Nice melodies on the violins

Pretty damn impressive po6ept.Lead female could be replaced.But otherwise massive metal mix. Would've liked to here a little more (more gain) bass guitar and strings. Lacked glue in that sense.What're you using for amp/guitar?

The guitars are DIs run through an amp sim; I used a free VST called Shred, which I really like. I twerked one of the metal presets to taste. Doubled and panned left and right. I ended up mixing pretty "dark" on everything, including my guitar sounds, so for mastering I boosted the highs a bit. Thanks for participating! I've gotten a lot of feedback on the female vox. I'll probably tune them and bring up the delay a bit louder.

I'm listening to your album now. It's much better than I was expecting. These are some cool sounds. Some of the stuff in pine tree reminded me of a waterphone. What do you use for your synths and what do you use for your main DAW? (Reaper is my DAW of choice, having tried Sonar and Cubase and played with FL a little.)

I'm quite impressed with your album, actually. Feels pretty modern to me. Death star is filthy.

The Great Hippo wrote:[T]he way we treat suspected terrorists genuinely terrifies me.

Thanks man.I can't count the number of synths I use or in what proportion, but they're mostly freeware, with a few payware like Cameleon- which I love - I also used to use a lot of sample-based stuff - a couple of the tracks are from as far back as 2001/2002 My korg x5 got used for the main sound on pinetree - Love that sound...

Tracktion is my main DAW, has been for about 6 years, before that logic. Reaper I've tried, and will shift to if I'm forced to. As yet nothing can beat the workflow of tracktion, and I waste too much time in any other daw just doing simple stuff that should be easy. Case in point - took me three weeks to learn the basics in logic audio. Took me half an hour in tracktion. Reapers still light-years ahead of the ver of logic I was using though.

Thanks for the tip re: shred, I'm downloading it now. I've used Amplitube a little recently (the freeware ver) and it's interesting. I'm only getting started on amp modelling. I also have a industrial rock album here:onefatalpunch.bandcamp.comvery different stuff again. My strength and weakness is I do too little of the same thing. I like to jump around.

metamorphosis wrote:Thanks man.I can't count the number of synths I use or in what proportion, but they're mostly freeware, with a few payware like Cameleon- which I love - I also used to use a lot of sample-based stuff - a couple of the tracks are from as far back as 2001/2002 My korg x5 got used for the main sound on pinetree - Love that sound...Tracktion is my main DAW, has been for about 6 years, before that logic. Reaper I've tried, and will shift to if I'm forced to. As yet nothing can beat the workflow of tracktion, and I waste too much time in any other daw just doing simple stuff that should be easy. Case in point - took me three weeks to learn the basics in logic audio. Took me half an hour in tracktion. Reapers still light-years ahead of the ver of logic I was using though Thanks for the tip re: shred, I'm downloading it now. I've used Amplitube a little recently (the freeware ver) and it's interesting. I'm only getting started on amp modelling. I also have a industrial rock album here: onefatalpunch.bandcamp.com very different stuff again. My strength and weakness is I do too little of the same thing. I like to jump around.

I actually really enjoyed that, I listened to "America" and "Destruction of a Newborn Star" and while they weren't the type of music I would typically listen to on my own they're pretty interesting. Destruction of A Newborn Star is really cool mostly because it's just scary as hell. The lack of drums makes it hard to anticipate when the next chord/note change will be and it's all dissonant and whatnot. I don't have my good headphones (cable broke...) so I can't really make any judgements on production value, these laptop speakers are rubbish for anything other than just straightforward listening. Do your tracks have bass? I can't tell due to the lack of bass in these speakers

My own music...tends to be a love or hate affair for a lot of people, because my voice is rather distinctive (and nasally, and crappy). But, you can take a listen to my favorite song on the album here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iJAtnBzZ3A or the saddest song I've ever written: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQCXorQ218

Been working on a new album too, which is following that first link's path and becoming a bit heavier and more electronic.

Been working on a new album too, which is following that first link's path and becoming a bit heavier and more electronic.

Cool! Commenting on "favorite song".

I think your voice is usable. I wonder if you could get it to mix in better? How did you track this, and how did you mix it? Your vocal volume is all over the place, and there's quite a bit of small room in the vocal track, but otherwise it's bone dry, contrasting it with the expansive synths in a non-flattering way. In other words, I think your singing voice is okay and it could be significantly improved with some EQ, compression, volume automation, etc. I liked the song except the drums at the end got pretty boring and annoying.

Similar comments on "saddest song": you have a super wet guitar sound, delayed and reverbed to an expensive wash, and your vocals are pretty dry. It sounds good, but the instruments sound like they're in a totally different space.

It's just a home recording on Audacity, which is why the mixing and processing is off all over the place. I'm getting better with recording so the stuff I've been recording the last month or two sounds a lot better, but that's not done yet. The drums are FL Studio, I wish I had a drum set/the right equipment to record it, and yeah that song in particular the drums are really boring by the end.

That second song actually is just guitar and vocals it could have used some reverb on the vocals but I was just starting with recording and didn't really trust myself with using effects on anything but my guitar tracks.

You've all heard 'em before in various iterations (see: my other posts in this thread), but this is way better, I promise. Lot more effects, actual multitrack recording, a ton of hours of work... they're real songs, not just demos.

one of my best friends plays guitar, the other plays drums, I play the bass & did the engineering/mixing/producing stuff--something I like doing a lot. heck, I'd do it for you guys.

First: Dewddddddd I'm digging all these tracks a lot. Sounds like a more adventurous and less jangley and percise version of Real Estate...which is great because those are the qualities I wish they'd loosen up on. A bit like beach fossils too maybe, minus the beach and with more space. I REALLY like Just Enough Sound. The vocals really fit into the mix quite nicely....so hard to do well.

Second: who knows if anybody will even notice there's been a new post but here's some stuff I've been working on:

The Devil's Pitch is some dark acoustic folkish stuff and Video Game Morals is just some beat, bass and synth. Both surely works in progress. I'd love to hear some feedback here or on soundcloud.

Cool. Definitely some nice sounding stuff is there, ready for you to work on it. Obviously you said "work in progress" and I agree. Especially "The Devils Pitch" felt pretty long even though it's not even 3 minutes. Needs more variation and interest, but you're certainly able to get some nice sounds. I liked "Video Game Morals" better.

The Great Hippo wrote:[T]he way we treat suspected terrorists genuinely terrifies me.

9 pages is a lot to read, so hopefully this isn't too out of the question or already covered...

Does anyone have any music which they'd mind me writing lyrics to? I ask, because it's something I want to get into. I've written more than a few parodies and I'm currently into rap-style-freestyling, but want to try my hand at lyric writing.

The reason I'm asking here rather than picking a random piece of music from the internet is because I'd want to get feedback from the person who created the music.

This might be ridiculous, so feel free to tell me so. Thanks.

edit: I didn't break the rules because there is no music in the previous post to think. Also, after reading the rules, I think I could be in the wrong thread, but can't see a better one - suggestions?

The Devil's Pitch is some dark acoustic folkish stuff and Video Game Morals is just some beat, bass and synth. Both surely works in progress. I'd love to hear some feedback here or on soundcloud.

Pretty neat stuff. I like "Manhattans in Carolina" the best. Somehow it manages to be both chill and frantic, which I find enthralling. I would love it if you can make one song that is like all your other ones combined.

mimicthefrench wrote:[My own music...tends to be a love or hate affair for a lot of people, because my voice is rather distinctive (and nasally, and crappy). But, you can take a listen to my favorite song on the album here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iJAtnBzZ3A

I second the previous comments about your voice and the mixing. It's a very cool distinctive voice. EQ/reverb/delay/compression will make it polished. Another interesting thing you can experiment with is recording two vocal tracks and making one quiet and wetter.

For the general music making singer out there, here's a pretty good site on the basics of vocal eq. If you're like me, trying to mix on crappy speakers, it can be easier to just set the EQ up to a default setting. It beats doing nothing just because EQ intimidates you.

And here's some recent music of my own! It's pretty generic alternative indie pop or something, I don't really know. I think The Wizard is my most pleasing, but they're all pretty different.

My band had recently come out with a new album in the Post-rock/Math rock genre and I figured some of you folks may find some appreciation for it. I'm hoping to get it out to as many people as I can as well as get as much feedback as I can.

It's good to see you've had this user since aught-seven, so you're not just drive-by promoting, but there's a thread for "look at my band". It stops the whole forum being taken up by that sort of thing, when in fact most people here don't actually make music, they just fall out over it live an angrily wasted semi life of constant recriminations. I'm reporting your post but don't stress! It's just a minor administrative adjustment.